Summer : Hanging out at the Beach

With warmer weather FINALLY here in Vancouver I finally feeling enthusiastic about summer.

Growing up on the west coast, my summers were filled with visits to the beach, trips on ferries crossing the straight, beach combing for the perfect shell, building sand castles, feeling the squishy sand between my toes and feeling the sun on my body as I tanned.

Goosespit Beach, Comox, BC

As a child I loved heading to the beach with my parents, as a teenager my friends and I would spend our summers hanging out at the beach, walking the promenade and cruising up and down the front street in our parent's cars.

During college {during which I discovered my love for marine ecology} I worked for Environment Canada and my job was a research assistant to two marine biologists where I spent a summer mucking about the shorelines of Vancouver and Victoria.

After my husband and I married, took a 5 week long trip to Europe, we came home and rented a beach cottage {which was really chilly in the winter} but I loved being so close to the ocean. Listening to the sea gulls cry, the waves lap on the shoreline and children squealing in the hot summer. When I was pregnant with our first and on forced bed rest, living in the beach cottage saved my sanity. I could enjoy summer and the beach sitting on our deck where I soaked up the sun, the salty air and enjoyed the ocean breeze on my face.

Ambleside Beach, West Vancouver, BC

After we had all three of our kids and our moving across provinces and countries began, the one thing I missed the most was the ocean. Every time we landed in Vancouver I would squeal,

"Can you smell it? It's the ocean!"

Horseshoe Bay, BC

Howe Sound, BC

Now that we are back on the west coast, hopefully for a while, it is the ocean that beckons me on that first warm summer day.

I loved reading about the history of your love for the sea. I have lived in several places (and I am even in the mountains as I write)...but I love the smell of the salt air in the morning. Such lovely photos.